#StartUpJournal2: How Am I Surviving the Start-up Culture?
Hello self and hello to my fellow readers! It has been quite long since I have expressed my thoughts with my #StartUpJournal.
I am getting a lot of “Kamusta Ka? (How are you?)”, and it troubles me answering these people, it’s as if I owe them some good news. That’s why I decided to write again to really describe how a 22-year old, fresh grad, hungry with experience, based in a province of Philippines (where start-up is not yet culturally recognized) is surviving this kind of life.
To set things straight, it’s just a little more than a year since I encountered the word “start-up”. That’s why this entry journal might not be the same with what you are really experiencing, especially those who are fully immersed with the start-up culture. I am just narrating how things are going on with my day to day life. Hopefully some will be able to relate a thing or two.
A DIFFERENT LIFESTYLE
They said an entrepreneur is always an entrepreneur, this is not shoes that I wear only eight-hours a day, five days a week. But the moment that I injected to my DNA this whole idea, that’s the time that a lot of things change. If you wonder if we still get some breaks. Well yes! That’s one of the perks. We can work “anytime” so long as actions are taken within our weekly plan. But there was almost never a moment that we stop thinking how we can earn from our engagements; how can we able to scale up our business idea; how can we be able to pay ourselves and how can we even sustain it in the runway. There are even times that I am just staying at home with my family, but my mind flies away. I also even enjoy alone times which was supposed to be a time to think about my personal life plan, but it end up planning the strategies with our potential clients.
Basically it consumes our week planning, executing, evaluating, strategizing, executing (again), until we see which one fits. This is a kind of lifestyle not every person at my age experiences. That’s why whenever ask what am I doing with my life, it is hard for me to let them understand our situation, without them knowing the real context.
HOW AM I SURVIVING THIS STARTUP CULTURE?
I have been reading a lot of articles, both positive articles like on how fun it is to establish your own startup, enumerating all the perks of it; but I had also come across to some articles which seems to be discouraging, saying that not everyone is potential to be a builder because of some characteristics which I think I should still need to work hard on. Well, these articles help me in some ways, knowing that it’s not only me who experience the struggle. There are people in the other part of the world who experience the anxiety, joy, confusion and self-doubt.
However, I cannot personally approach these people in times of trouble, anxiety attacks and on times that I almost burst with happiness. That brings me to answer the question, “How am I surviving this startup culture?”
Be With Friends Who Believe and Who are Indifferent
I have a diverse pool of friends, each of the pool serves a specific purpose in my life (sounds like a user, though). But since time is much precious now than it was before, I make sure that I spend quality time with friends, not only to those who believe,but also a little time to those who find it hard to understand me that makes them indifferent about the decision I had to make. I believe I still need them in my life to maintain my sanity.
We all have different pre-occupations, some of them are graduating students, some are bound to work eight-hours a day (those who are based here in Naga City) and others have to work more than eight-hours, (excluding the traffic stress, for those who are based in Metro Manila). But what’s good thing with with this kind of dissimilarity is that when I text them randomly, anytime of the day or night, I came to realize that our experiences, though they are all different, there’s no easy way of it. No one is luckier than the other.
“We all have equal unpredictabilities.”
I cannot just thank my friends enough for being supportive to me, ever since day zero, when all I can do is to declare my dream, up to this point that I am realizing that such dream is not to be merely declared but should be more put into actions.
There’s also gratitude to those who doesn’t understand me, or for those who chose not to understand me. You have been the reminder that I am just like anybody else, that’s it’s okay not to make it at times, because there’s also a chance to make it on the next day.
They may not be aware of it, but I consider them as one of the great foundations why I am surving this start-up culture.
Appreciate Your Family who Doesn’t Have the Choice But to Support
One thing I have been seeing to those people who are in a start-up community is that most of them are raised in a well-off family, where they can afford to say that “It’s okay to fail”. But with the kind of family that I have been raised, that thinking is something that can be hard to swallow.
So when I told them that I won’t be looking for a job after graduation, I was actually expecting for a worse response. I even prepared myself with answers to possible arguments. But when my mom said, “Alam mo naman na siguro kung anong makakabuti sa’yo (You probably already know what’s good for you)”. I was actually amazed where her confidence with me was coming from.
Months from that decision passed, and it’s not like everyday that they make me feel their support. There a lot of bad family days, but I try to see it better than it actually appears.
At the end of this journey, I strongly believe that family is where I will be going home to either celebrate or cry, not because I win or lose, but because I win more or win less.
Trust the mentors, the real ones
It’s funny to know that the number of mentors that we have is greater than the actual people who are working, including us- the two co-founders. I was actually alarmed in the first months. Many people are advising us what to do and what not to, and that it is very overwhelming. But through time I have realized their purpose. More than what they really say to us, I put high value on the constant time that they are giving us, especially that I know how busy their everyday can actually get. Then I usually question what good did we make to have them in the pool, which draws me to answer that they actually trust us, probably more than we trust ourselves. We celebrate every little milestone that we can achieve, and I know that they are really sincere of it.
It’s greatly helpful also to identify each mentors to the area which they specialize on. That was a way for us to organize our team and to know whom to talk to in times of challenges.
Now that I am realizing their purpose of encouraging and challenging us at the same time, what I can do is to trust them, the way they trust us. They keep on saying “This is your own startup!” And I just love them for that.
Reconnect with Self Better
Before making a huge decision or even drafting an e-mail, I make sure that I am convinced of what I do. To be able to do that, I should establish a sense of security on myself. But due to hassles of life, it’s really something that is difficult to do. There are many hurdles that makes me blinded. What I do? Spending time with myself, and enjoying every bit of it. I have been practicing it for a few months now, I just realized. I’m taking days off to self-examine, either I spend some times in Starbucks (well that’s just once) or I spend time looking at the vastness of dark sky at night (well that’s way way cheaper). That’s really dramatic, but I think it really helps me gain the energy and optimism for the next day (not a bluff one but the genuine one). Those quiet times I spend on imagining what good shall happen in the next five or ten years, because I haven’t given up at the moment.
Ask for the Validation from the Ultimate Mentor
Being in a startup community, sometimes I am seeking for a kind of validation that I couldn’t get from anyone around me, not even from myself. In such times, I just pray so much. Well, I am fond of praying even before but not like how I do now. Perhaps because I am already a witness of His Power.
Maybe, this is what adulting life makes me do, to seek for a personal relationship with this Guy, and so far, as I become more Christian with the help of my fellows, I realize that I am where He exactly wants me to be, and that is what the validation that I have been longing for.
As I continue to take the next big step, I am looking forward for more exciting lemons life will throw to me.
